Showdog.com Forum · General

I don't think it's a flaw at all. The prices are set that way so as not to detract from new users or even other users purchasing dogs from other players.

The 3 breeds listed above have no missing colors in the breeds and have plenty of good quality breeds for sale. So there would be very limited reasons for people wanting to purchase starters of those breeds. The only one I can think of is because you want to start your own line from starters... there sure isn't a lack of stud dogs, the COI's are ridiculously high,etc. So not a really big need to introduce a lot of new "starter blood" into those breeds.

If you are in the minority and wanted to purchase starters to start your own lines, then yes the prices may seem high, however, two days ago, you didn't have ANY options to buy starters, so therefore I don't think beggars can be choosers in a sense.

This isn't meant to be a free for all so everyone can buy starters because on the whole there isn't a giant need for starters in the popular breeds.And you also still have the option of finding people who have unmade starters for sale and asking them to make you starters and purchasing starters from individuals instead of the game.

I think it's set up well and I think it maintains a balance between buying "game made" dogs and buying from other players.

I'll change the initial age on new starters created this way to 31 days right now.

quote$15k seems to be the most anyone ever talks about

Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that what people talk about is all there is. One thing I've taken away from the games over the years is I've stopped listening whenever somebody says "everyone says". I've just seen way too many examples of how what people see from the small group of people they interact with is hardly every representative of the whole.

There are 98 users that have logged in during the past two weeks that have more than $15,000 in their account right now. Of those, only 11 of them have posted even once in the forums during that time period.

Regarding your specific examples, among other things, the average price is based on the average balance of the users in the breed that have been around longer than two weeks and have logged in during the past two weeks.

Bull Terrier – 16 users - $6,163 average balance

Dalmatian – 12 users - $6,464 average balance

English Setter – 15 users - $5,281 average balance

The breeds where they are cheap are breeds with low average balances and a shortage of dogs for sale.

But I'm rather astounded at the price of a Portuguese Pointer starter - $414! - , given that there's only three active players in the breed and very little in the way of dog sales. The only sales I've made in the last eighteen months was when a new player joined the breed.

Much as I'd like to recover our lost colours, paying $414 each for starters would make too much of a dent in my finances.

I see the point of Euphorias and Soloimar. I think increasing the quality of starters a bit might help in more ways than just for source breeders. It could reduce inbreeding, increase competition as it would be easier to breed up to competitive dogs.

Just increasing to what was suggested, half of the current top SOP. That would still pose a great challenge, but perhaps not one that would take several actual real life years to achieve. All the while current source breeders create no show entries, no sales, not much of anything for multiple years. They're something like a black hole.

If the quality of starters was brought up I would be very excited to start source kennels for my popular breeds! If for mo reason other than to eventually introduce some new blood.

With memberships dwindling COIs are bound to be a big problem soon enough.

In the American Kennel Club, a dog needs 15 points to become a Champion, with each win gaining anywhere from zero to five points depending on the number of dogs competing and the area where the show is held.